Mother Nature Dissents - The Atlantic

Mother Nature Dissents – The Atlantic

Mother Nature is entering a dissenting opinion on last month’s Supreme Court decision that weakened the federal government’s ability to combat climate change. With record heat in Texas that is testing the state’s power grid, a California wildfire that has threatened an ancient grove of sequoias considered a foundation stone of the national-park system, and persistent drought across the West that…

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What do you make of Tim's behavior in the last few episodes? I feel like he's a totally different person and it's making me sad to see him disrespecting Lucy so much.

just up front: it feels v clear to me that we do not share an opinion on this storyline from the tone of this ask, and so i am going to discuss this but would just like to preface that this is only my opinion and i respect that you/anyone else engaging with this post may have a different one. i am allowed to feel the way i feel, as are you. i am not trying to change or discredit anyone's opinions just because they're different than mine.

that being said - i will be honest with you, i don't really see where he's disrespected lucy. before you (and whoever else is reading this) jump me, let me explain myself.

tim went through something very difficult and traumatic with the resurgence of his wartime trauma and he made the decision not to involve lucy as he navigated said trauma. while it may not have been the best choice for their relationship, tim made the choice he felt was right in the moment. though we may not agree with it as viewers and lucy may not agree with it as tim's partner, he had the right to do that, and he explained to the best of his ability in the moment that he was keeping her out of the situation to ensure she didn't get hurt/her career wasn't impacted.

to me, that didn't feel disrespectful - it felt like tim relying on his tried and true methods of keeping the people he loves safe from him/the potential danger surrounding him. he was working with the tools he had available, even if they may not be the "right" tools for the job.

like, was it fucked that he ignored her for 36 hours? absolutely! that was disrespectful in some ways - but i think if you zoom out a little, it's not right, but it's understandable.

in the end of 5x07, lucy stops tim in the hallway at the station and asks him to talk to her - and i have seen a bunch of people who are really angry about the way tim handled that convo, so i wonder if that's what you mean by disrespect. generally, a few thoughts about that scene:

lucy approached tim hot - which, let me be clear: she had every right to. she was in her feels all day, she had something she wanted to say to him, and she was already a bit revved up coming to him. but she came into that conversation already looking for something specific, where tim was just...guard down, a little goofily happy to see her, probably a little nervous to talk to her at all.

tim wasn't given the opportunity to say much of anything. lucy asked if they could have "an adult conversation" (patronizing, but i don't blame her for it - he deserved that) and when tim explained he "couldn't give her what she wanted", lucy snapped. i understand the snap - i would've done the same - but tim had no space to continue talking there. that wasn't a conversation. lucy got her opportunity to unload on him a bit, which i think she needed. think about the breakup - lucy didn't get the chance to argue a side there, and tim didn't get the chance to argue a side here. they're equal on that kind of convo now, which i find fascinating.

so, is tim being honest with her and saying he can't give her what she needs right now disrespectful? i don't really think so. i think lucy is looking for something that tim can't give her right now - himself. tim has to sort through all his shit before he can be the best version of himself for lucy - in his tim brain, he doesn't think he can support her fully without working on himself first...and honestly? i think that's noble. lucy is far too close to the picture to see that tim has some really big issues he needs to work on outside of the scope of their relationship. i don't blame her for that, but it's just...true.

she can't be the person to help tim find himself at this point in his life. that's not fair to her or their relationship - so i think he's made the right choice here, as much as it hurts both of them.

i would also be remiss if i didn't mention that i think there's a huge part of this situation that lucy still needs to realize is on her. she has problems of her own, too! girl knows she's not perfect - but she has yet to address her own problems, and i think that's such an issue. tim is taking initiative to resolve his problems, even if it's not in a way that she agrees with. lucy isn't. just like their relationship already had issues, lucy has her own set. this wasn't the defining problem - this was just the straw that broke the camel's back in a lot of ways.

i hope this answers your question tbh bc i feel like i just rambled a bunch - but i'm always up to chat about this kind of stuff, so feel free to come back to me with more if i haven't annoyed you too much 😂

Every time I view the tributes as "evil" or "annoying" or "stuck up" I have to physically chant THAT'S WHAT THE CAPITOL WANTS YOU TO THINK. We watch and consume media, and we are all easily suggestible to depictions and hidden agenda of the producers - I'm a kpoppie so I've seen my fill of reality shows and evil mnet editing, how someone can have their actions, words and expressions twisted into a narrative that isn't true. Media at the scale of the Games are not designed to tell the truth - that largely marginalised kids are ritually massacred to scare the districts from thinking about rebellion. The broadcasted Games are selling the deaths almost at an unreal quality, almost like it's not REALLY happening - and the emotional distance that the Capitol citizens are able to afford/and be removed from the brutality can pretend that it's not really there and more importantly, not THEIR kids. This is just a silly little show and these kids are only characters playing a role, but ooh sometimes we can get interactive and influence their odds. How fun! How exciting! And we in the Capitol get to do this Every Year? Give us drama and twists, different arenas and costumes every year so we can keep consuming.

It's so easy to call literal kids EVIL or SELFISH and INHUMANE. Anyone would be if they've been publicly announced to fight to the DEATH and having to survive 23 other people actively TRYING to murder them. Everything is RIGGED by the game makers and sponsors - create an environment that is so toxic that people have to be the worst versions of themselves to survive - for funsies. For shits and giggles. For laughs, for bets. Doesn't matter if the chosen tribute win, but they have to be entertaining. SICKENING.

So the next time you catch yourself slipping into Capitol propaganda, thinking about how kids are evil and murderous and annoying, also consider the additional fact that they HAVE TO BE, and also just because a teenager is annoying doesn't mean they should DIE FOR IT. I know we're all disdainful of kids and think they're not fully formed humans, and sometimes they can look like they're older than they are, but that doesn't excuse TELEVISED demonisation of certain actions. Kids who are ruthless so they can go home are just trying to play a game rigged against their LIVES. I think all of the tributes can do whatever tf they want, I support tribute rights AND wrongs. They're ANNOYING and I want them to LIVE. Two statements that can and should coexist

EXCUSE ME??

"if you don't believe in evolution you just don't understand the science!"

It's interesting that we often talk about Hürrem etc. as compact characters, like "Hürrem does this" and "Hürrem does that" when one of the best aspects of the show is often the showcase of character evolution (and degeneration) of its main cast. Like s1!Hürrem is such a different beast to s4!Hürrem - and the best part is, you can for the most part see how she changed so much over the years. Now of course she's an incredibly complex character at every point of her journey, which is great, but she becomes even better in aggregate, when you can look back and trace her evolution from the petty, borderline sociopathic teenager with... Interesting coping mechanisms towards her trauma (I mean, Halit Ergenç??? I know he's the sultan girl but still.) to the kindly older lady who only murders and manipulates people because she's in a difficult situation (and also sometimes because they are annoying; Nazenin had it coming, fucking sue me). Like in general s4!Hürrem is at her peak empathy-wise and has mostly lost her previous pettiness (well, mostly, again Nazenin had it coming), which is certainly believable, but also incredibly fascinating. Because the show presents her orchestrating Mustafa's death as her low point... But she has actively murdered people before for the crime of her babydady liking them more (Isabella says hi), an adult man who is an active threat to all of her sons is fucking NOTHING. And she even has the decency to feel bad for it this time around! (Not for Nazenin, but then she shouldn't feel bad for Nazenin anyway.) Not to mention, in s4 she feels bad for Mahidevran and even kinda for fucking Ibrahim???

Like genuinely, over time, Hürrem became a better person; not a GOOD person, mind you, but still. Her moral rise makes for an interesting parallel to Mahidevran's fall, who in turn (as I detail in one of my previous posts) has become worse over time. Now, her moral degeneration isn't as noticeable as Hürrem's evolution, she was never a wholly good person and she most certainly doesn't become wholly bad, but it's still interesting to note.

And the thing is. We can hem and haw over how these characters aren't meant to be good people and how in this system you can't be a good person anyway. But at the end of the day, there IS a difference between someone who is struggling with their morality despite the fact that they are in a situation that encourages discarding it all in the name of survival, and someone who doesn't. So it's kind of interesting that the show ends up with this morally nihilistic take of "power corrupts, no exceptions" when in fact one of its protagonists is at her best morally when she has the most power, and the other... Doesn't fucking change at all, like morally. Like Süleyman starts the show as a young asshole and ends up as the same asshole, but older and with a much longer rap sheet.

@hurremhasckis @desmoonl

okay I am soooo fucking tired of the whole "how old are you?" "Oh I'm nineteen. Twenty in a couple months." "Aww you're a BABY!"

Happens every single time and it drives me up the wall. I am not a goddamn child, I am an adult and a professional and I'm tired of people devaluing me like this

i think the reason hating the rat grinders isn't fun for me anymore is because i have become uncomfortable with people writing dissertations on why a bunch of teenagers deserve to die painfully and attacking people who aren't a fan of that.

honestly it's not hard to see why people in this specific fandom relate to kipperlilly and other members of the rat grinders. it's not a wild thing to feel hurt by how the fandom and the cast members talk about them. ESPECIALLY with the heavy use of gendered insults towards kipperlilly specifically and the infantilization of mary ann.

just because someone feels this way doesn't mean you need to justify why they're wrong and you're right. you don't need to mock them for engaging with the media in a different way than you.

sometimes "it's fun and genre appropriate" is enough. AND you can choose to keep that to yourself!!

Alright so thoughts on YJ Dark Crisis after having read it:

1) Most importantly, Bart Allen.

Amazing. 10/10. An inspiration to us all. But seriously though, Meg writes Bart really well and seems to understand his core character. While I take some issues with how his powers were represented in this issue, I can excuse it because I understand that stranding a speedster anywhere is difficult and Meg had to tweak some aspects of Bart's powers for the plot to work. It annoys me because of who I am (a Flash fanatic) but I can understand that it's for the sake of the plot.

2) The Weird Imp Guy

Yeah, I didn't like it. I don't like this character or what he represents at all. For starters, this is a Dark Crisis event and this guy is completely unrelated to the rest of the crisis. This book might as well not be a tie in. Actually I think it'd be better if it wasn't. Making this series a tie in to Dark Crisis and then making it have nothing to do with Dark Crisis really hurts the series in my opinion. Write a good solo YJ book or write a good tie in. Don't half ass both.

Also, I just don't think the imp was a good villain. I know there are people who disagree with me (and that's valid, people are allowed to have their own opinions) but I don't think what he represents makes any sense. He was written to be a stand-in for the audience. He's someone meant to represent DC fan's ideas and attitudes so that the characters in the story could address those ideas/attitudes within the narrative. It's a meta text and it's not inherently a bad thing. However, I do not think that this was a good application of that at all.

The imp is supposed to represent toxic DC fans. He's homophobic, sexist, ableist, racist and just generally bigoted. He doesn't like that Tim is bi, he belittles Bart and implies that his neurodivergent behaviors/traits make him dumb, he dislikes when Cassie speaks her mind and prefers a brainless puppet of Cassie, he creates racist caricatures for the boys to fight, he says that all the new diverse characters have 'replaced YJ', ect, ect. The imp is just generally a bad person with bad ideas and he wants "everything to be like it was in the 90's".

The problem here is that this is addressing Young Justice fans. The text is accusing the Young Justice fandom of being sexist, homophobic, racist, ableist and bigoted. Maybe I just surround myself with good people and maybe there is a lot of toxicity in the YJ fandom that I'm just not aware of but I haven't seen any of this.

Have I seen DC fans in general get upset that Tim is bi? Yeah, I have. Have I seen DC fans in general be racist. Yep. Are DC fans in general sexist? Absolutely. Is there rampant ableism in the general DC fandom? 100%. These are absolutely problems that exist within the DC comics fanbase but this isn't a YJ issue.

YJ fans have been calling for Tim (among others) to be LGBTQ+ for a long time. They've been calling for Bart's neurodivergency to be canonized for a long time. YJ fans get angry when Bart is mischaracterized or when there is a sexist interpretation of Cassie. Sure, YJ fans get nostalgic for old comics but being nostalgic for old dynamics does not mean we want those dynamics back. Young Justice has undergone so much character growth and I don't think there's a single YJ fan that wants to reverse that.

Additionally, saying that YJ fans are mad that 'Alan Scott, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, ect' have replaced YJ is just... what? When has that ever been a complaint? In what way is Alan replacing YJ? It just feels like they took all the LGBTQ+ characters and threw them on one page to really drive home the homophobia.

I guess my point is that I don't think it's a bad message, I think it's a bad forum. Do this in a Batman comic where the majority of DC fans will actually see it. Don't take what little Young Justice content we've been given and twist it into a PSA about why we should feel bad for even asking for YJ content.

3) Conner Kent

Are we just not addressing what an asshole Conner has been in this series? Not even a little bit? Not gonna state that the world has been affecting his mind? Not going to have him actually apologize in any real and/or meaningful way?

We have one issue left so this might be addressed next time but jeeeeeeeez.

just took absolutely catastrophic mental damage reading this

My favorite canon RWBY slowburn is Oscar x Confidence

when are we going to acknowledge that gojo is undeniably a tit man

lies of p ≠ pinocchio

sticking this under a cut in case anybody hasn't played through to the end yet

i don't think that "lies of p" is "lies of pinocchio". bear with me here.

we're all relying on the source material for this, because duh, of COURSE its about Pinocchio, that's the name of the BOOK, its what the author WROTE.

except this isn't the book and the puppet in the game is never given his own name. he is 'the boy' - the Romeo puppet calls out for Carlo, for Gepetto's son, but not for Pinocchio.

but who finally gets a name at the end of the game? revealed as part of a cadre of masterminds who guided the fall of Krat for some unnamed and unknown purpose? who lied to us the entire way overtly and through omission, watching the boy on his journey to what might be immortality and the destruction of Simon Magnus and the inheritance of the Arm of God.

if i was to put dollars down against doughnuts, i think 'lies of p' isn't a reference to the boy's ability to lie like a human, but is instead a deeper callback to whoever or whatever Paracelsus is.

I started listening to Julia Lovell's translation/abridged version of JTTW today, so here's some quotes from the prologue I found pretty interesting:

"Demons are born of the mind, and they are also subdued by the mind"—once again, making the modern day stand in for Sun Wukong a mentally ill mind monkey is genius. Hubris versus self-abasement. Restless and volatile on opposite ends. The mind and the heart being one thing.

Next time you have a strong emotional reaction to a stranger being mindlessly rude to you, or just expressing an opinion you don't agree with into the void, and you find yourself getting ready to go on the offensive, ask yourself first:

Am I behaving as if this person has power over me and must be met with active resistance lest I be conquered by them?

and also,

Why do I apparently think that this is true?